Waukee Activities Blog

Waukee Mock Trial Team Competes at State

After competing in districts and eliminating more than 150 other mock trial teams, Waukee High School’s Mock Trial took the podium at the Iowa State High School Mock Trial Tournament on March 26 and 27. For the first time in five years, the team of ten WHS students took on the 30 best mock trial teams in the state.

“All of the students on the team who advanced to state have been involved in Mock Trial for multiple years, many of them dating all the way back to middle school,” said Benjamin Hicks, the head coach of the high school team. “ As a coach, it is gratifying to see us succeed at high levels as a team because many of the other schools in our area have traditionally been the Mock Trial “powerhouses,” so it is nice to see Waukee proving itself against very tough competition.”

The team spent several days every week since November working through different cases as a group and powered through both the regional and regional final competition their spot on the state roster.

Going to state for the first time in five years was a great accomplishment for the high school mock trial team, and they hope to be able to come back and enjoy the experience again next year.

Mock trial is a club that provides students interested in law enforcement careers a way to develop early argumentative skills.

“As the students prepare their parts as attorneys or witnesses, they work a lot on learning about courtroom procedures, criminal and civil law, critical writing, public speaking, and teamwork,” said Hicks, “One of my favorite parts of Mock Trial is that we really have a wide variety of students participating and I have seen tremendous growth in students who have participated with their confidence and speaking skills.”

This year Waukee had over 80 students on 9 Mock Trial teams competing between grades 8-12. Teams were from Prairieview, Timberline, and Waukee High School and were coached by Luke Peterson at Timberline and Ben Hicks at Prairieview and the High School.

The members of the High School team that qualified for state are (left to right in picture: front row: Elizabeth Messman, Grace Hilscher, Caitlin Conklin, Peyton Soethout, back row: Claire Brown, Samantha Stewart, Shalini Birari, Kathryn Shumaker, Bhavanna Sirimalle, Gautham Ajith)